Police association happy competition shooting exemption rejected

Police Association president Chris Cahill told Morning Report submitters' support for the bill was pleasing.

Mr Cahill said the association's biggest concern had been that the committee would recommend too many exemptions to the ban on military-style semi-automatics and the association was relieved it rejected calls to exempt competitive shooters.

"We believe [it] would have been too big a gap and would have allowed these rifles to remain in New Zealand".

Dr Cook said there had been little funding for training the part-time vetters administering the system.

"They tend to be looking for older people with previous experience of firearms, and the police have just relied on that rather than trying to train them to look for unconscious bias or racism - the tendency to go easy on people like yourself."

Local firearms officers need proper computer systems and should have enough time to do administrative tasks.

Emotions ran high at a select committee seeking to change NZ's gun laws today, with opponents taking aim at the speed of the bill through Parliament, while supporters say it can't come soon enough. Audio